Category: Conservative Review
What Is an American?
The chaotic confrontation in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday — when a demonstrator attempted to burn a Qur’an and Muslim counter-protesters…
Democrats for Sedition
In the long ago of my teenage youth (no, not yesterday), I had a book report assignment due in my…
Virginia high-school principal allegedly suggests anti-ICE ‘hunting’ plot; brother brags about ‘assault rifle,’ cop claims
A pair of Virginia brothers are facing charges related to an alleged plot to attack U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as retaliation for their enforcement of the law.
Mark Bennett, 59, and his younger brother John Bennett, a 54-year-old assistant principal at Virginia Beach’s Kempsville High School, were arrested on Wednesday at Norfolk International Airport and each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit malicious wounding.
‘Our ICE law enforcement is now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them.’
While having lunch at a pho restaurant in Virginia Beach on Nov. 15, an off-duty Norfolk police officer allegedly overheard the brothers discussing “how ICE agents are kidnapping individuals and that they needed to do something about it,” said the criminal complaint obtained by WTKR-TV.
Mark Bennett allegedly indicated during the conversation that he was planning to link up with like-minded people in Las Vegas and return with “enforcement ideas and plans.” He also allegedly indicated that he recently purchased a so-called assault rifle because “it utilizes the explosive rounds that are needed to penetrate the vests.”
The complaint claims that John Bennett said that he wanted to “go hunting” and signaled interest in flying to Vegas with his older brother.
While detectives confirmed that Mark Bennett was scheduled to make the flight on the day of his arrest, it’s unclear whether his brother similarly had a ticket to fly.
RELATED: Ramming attacks on ICE spike, endangering agents as Democrats continue to spew hateful rhetoric
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
“These allegations of violence against law enforcement, the very ones who protect and serve our communities, are incredibly alarming,” Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate said in a statement. “We are grateful this information was brought to our attention. VBPD was able to work with various law enforcement agencies to assess the credibility of the information, leading to today’s arrests, ensuring the safety of both our law enforcement community and the public at large.”
Neither ICE nor Kempsville High School responded to Blaze News’ requests for comment by deadline.
Virginia Beach City Public Schools told WTKR that Bennett has been with the district since 2009 and is currently on leave.
During the brothers’ bond hearing on Thursday, the Bennetts’ attorneys claimed that the conversation overheard at the restaurant amounted to hearsay, that they were just joking around, and that neither brother posed a threat to the community, reported WVEC-TV.
The attorneys suggested further that the purpose of Mark Bennett’s trip to Las Vegas was to attend a Formula 1 race with his two sons.
The Bennetts were granted $25,000 bond but are confined to their homes and barred from contacting each other or possessing firearms.
ICE agents have faced an alarming number of threats and attacks in recent months. In some case, such as the sniper shooting in September at a Dallas facility, the attacks have proven deadly.
The Department of Homeland Security revealed this week that since Jan. 20, there have been 71 vehicular attacks against Customs and Border Protection agents and 28 vehicular attacks against ICE, amounting to 58% and 1,300% increases, respectively, of such attacks over the same period last year.
“Our ICE law enforcement is now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them while they risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late last month.
“From bounties placed on their heads for their murders, threats to their families, stalking, and doxxing online, our officers are experiencing an unprecedented level of violence and threats against them and their families,” continued McLaughlin. “Make no mistake, sanctuary politicians are contributing to the surge in violent threats and assaults of our officers through their repeated vilification and demonization tactics, including gross comparisons to the Nazi Gestapo.”
The agency noted that concerned citizens can report doxxing and harassment against ICE officers by calling 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or by completing ICE’s online tip form.
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Mr. Bin Salman Goes to Washington
Mohammed bin Salman got a royal welcome to Washington this week. President Donald Trump greeted the Saudi crown prince with a horseback procession, a lavish banquet, and even a fighter jet flyover. This pomp did not go over well in Washington, which Bin Salman has not visited since the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and fierce critic of the crown prince. Many Americans see no reason to roll out the red carpet for a ruler on whose hands they see plenty of red already.
The post Mr. Bin Salman Goes to Washington appeared first on .
Stop asking questions shaped by someone else’s script
The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.
Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.
Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.
The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.
Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.
Truth-seeking is real work
Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.
If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.
But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.
This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.
Bad-faith questions
This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?
FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.
Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.
If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.
RELATED: Antifa burns, the media spin, and truth takes the hits
Photo by Philip Pacheco/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?
The real target
These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.
If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.
That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.
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How GOP leadership can turn a midterm gift into a total disaster
Did Donald Trump secretly plan this fight over the Jeffrey Epstein files to lure Democrats into another political trap? No. I don’t believe he did. I know people close to the president who were frustrated over the summer when he abruptly shifted from promising the files’ release to calling it a “distraction” and a “hoax.” I said at the time on my show that the switch was the first major misstep of Trump 2.0.
But I understand why the 4D-chess theory is so tempting now. It looks like a setup. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) spent months attacking Trump over Epstein. Then we learned that Jeffries may have accepted donor requests from Epstein after Epstein’s first sex-offense conviction. And a Democrat from the Virgin Islands — Epstein’s district — was literally taking dictation from Epstein on what questions to ask in a congressional hearing.
The 2026 midterms are coming fast. If the GOP wants to avoid another preventable disaster, it had better stop rehearsing the same script.
Those are facts, not theories.
The deeper truth, though, has nothing to do with strategy. American politics follows two patterns, and both showed up again this week.
First, Republicans pre-emptively surrender. Always.
Watch Democrats tell soldiers to ignore orders while Trump follows every instruction a federal judge hands him. His restraint isn’t Romney-level, but the Republicans around him shrink the space for any real fight. That’s why Attorney General Pam Bondi is developing a well-deserved reputation for overpromising and under-delivering.
RELATED: The right message: Justice. The wrong messenger: Pam Bondi.
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Second, Democrats always overreach when Republicans fold.
We saw it in 2018 when Republicans gave up on repealing Obamacare and lost 40 House seats for their cowardice. The pattern continued in 2020, as Democrats pushed their false god evangelism into insane absolutism — on “fortifying” elections, on arresting Trump, on forcing people into taking the poisonous jab, on transitioning kids. It was mark of the beast stuff, and voters wanted no part of it.
The latest example came this week, when Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) answered a question from a friendly reporter about why Democrats never pursued the Epstein files when they had the chance by snapping, “What is [Trump] hiding?” The Senate had just voted almost unanimously to release those files, and instead of revealing Trump, former Bill Clinton hack Lawrence Summers stood exposed for his ties to the sex offender, seeking his counsel as “wingman” in an effort to seduce the daughter of a high Chinese Communist Party official.
Anna Rose Layden/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Both parties cling to their worst instincts. Republicans surrender too easily. Democrats push too far. And no politician in modern history has been buoyed more by his opponents’ excesses than Donald Trump.
So once again, Republicans hold the advantage on the Epstein files — at least for the moment. But early signs suggest they may squander it. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Pam Bondi appear ready to narrow or redact the release into something the base will see as betrayal. If that happens, Democrats won’t need to win the argument. Republicans will beat themselves.
The 2026 midterms are coming fast. If the GOP wants to avoid another preventable disaster, it had better stop rehearsing the same script.
A little discipline — and a little courage — would go a long way.
A payout scheme for senators deepens the gap between DC and the rest of us
During the final hours of the shutdown fight earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) slipped a toxic provision into the continuing resolution that reopened the government. The clause created a special pathway for select senators to sue the federal government, bypass its usual legal defenses, and claim large payouts if their records were subpoenaed during the Arctic Frost investigation.
The result? About eight senators could demand $500,000 for every “instance” of seized data. Those instances could stack, pushing potential payouts into the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. That is not an exaggeration. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has all but celebrated the prospect.
Graham said he wanted ‘tens of millions of dollars’ for seized records while victims of weaponization still face shattered lives.
No one else would qualify for compensation. Only senators. Anyone who spent years helping victims of political weaponization — often pro bono, while prestige law firms chased billable hours — can see the corruption in plain view. The message this provision sends on the central Trump-era promise of accountability could not be weaker: screw the people, pay the pols.
The surveillance of senators was wrong. It should never have happened. But senators did not face what ordinary Americans endured. Senators maintain large campaign accounts to hire top lawyers. They operate out of official offices, armed with constitutional protections such as the Speech and Debate Clause. They do not lose their homes, jobs, savings, or businesses. Thousands of Americans did. Many still face legal bills, ruined livelihoods, and ongoing cases. They deserve restitution — not the politicians who failed them.
Graham helped push this provision forward. As public criticism grew, he defended it. On Sean Hannity’s show the other day, he said: “My phone records were seized. I’m not going to put up with this crap. I’m going to sue.” Hannity asked how much. Graham replied: “Tens of millions of dollars.”
Democrats will replay that clip across every battleground in the country going into an uphill midterm battle in 2026.
Graham embodies the worst messenger for this fight. He helped fuel weaponization long before he claimed victimhood. He urged the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to pass the Steele dossier to the FBI. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he did nothing to slow the Justice Department and FBI as they pursued political targets. He even supported many of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees who later embraced aggressive lawfare tactics. If anyone owed restitution to victims, Graham sits high on the list.
RELATED: Trump’s pardons expose the left’s vast lawfare machine
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Fortunately, enough Republicans recognize the political and moral disaster of funneling taxpayer funds to senators while real victims remain abandoned. The House advanced a measure today to repeal the provision. Led by Reps. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas), the House forced the Senate to address in public what it attempted to smuggle through in private.
Thune defended the measure in comments to Axios. He argued that only senators suffered statutory violations and said the provision was crafted to avoid covering House members. He did not explain why any House member who was illegally surveilled should receive no remedy.
The Senate leader also claimed the financial penalty would deter a future Justice Department from targeting lawmakers, citing the actions of special counsel Jack Smith. His emphasis on “future” misconduct glossed over a critical fact: The provision is retroactive and would cover past abuses.
That defense cannot survive daylight. Repeal requires 60 Senate votes, and not a single Democrat will fight to preserve a payout for Graham. Republicans should not try either. Efforts to strike the measure need to begin immediately. Senators — especially Thune — should commit to an up-or-down vote. If they want to send tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to Graham, they should do it in public, with the country watching.
Washington already reeks of grift and self-dealing this year. If senators protect this provision, that smell will spread nationwide.
